Invisalign

One of the great things about advances in medical technology, is that it gives people more choices. This means that your medical professional is able to offer you options which fit with your situation, circumstances, background and preferences. This is particularly true in the field of dentistry. One example of this is the Invisalign dental product. It offers people an option which some very compelling benefits over traditional and historical alternatives.

For a long time, people who needed to make adjustments to the way their teeth were aligned, had to make do with traditional braces. Now, these braces do have their advantages. The main one is that they can bring about some fairly major changes in terms of tooth positioning, as long as the braces are given enough time to do their work. However, there were also many people who were not completely happy with traditional braces as the main option.

One disadvantage of those braces is their appearance. The traditional model is not particularly subtle. If you are wearing those metal braces, the people around you will be able to tell very quickly. That may be fine for some people, but not for others. It’s of particular concern to adults. For younger people, braces are not a particularly surprising thing to have. However, for many adults, there is concern that wearing such obvious braces may create problems for them in the workplace or elsewhere.

Invisalign is one option for people who need to make changes or adjustments to the way their teeth are positioned, without having to let other people know about it. This particular product has a design that works very differently from traditional or even newer braces. Braces generally work by having brackets which are permanently attached to each tooth, and then a wire is run across these teeth. Adjustments to the teeth are made through the use of the wire, as well as elastic bands.

This is very different from Invisalign. Invisalign has no brackets which attach permanently to teeth. There is no wire and there are no elastics. Instead, this product takes advantage of the fact that dentists are now able to create Invisalign dental appliances which are very specifically tailored to the shape of a person’s mouth and teeth. In order to imagine how Invisalign looks, try to imagine a mouth guard or mouth tray. Now imagine that the mouth guard is so perfectly aligned to the person’s teeth that it matches up with the individual teeth and other spaces in the person’s mouth. Then imagine that the mouth guard is made of a transparent material. That sort of comes close to the look of Invisalign.

The Invisalign procedure is made possible by the fact that dentists are able to use x-rays, casts and similar methods to create a three dimensional model of a person’s teeth and mouth area. Thanks to computer aided design and manufacture, the dentists can have the Invisalign company create a set of anywhere from half a dozen to almost three dozen Invisalign appliances. The patient will then wear the first appliance which will, over several weeks, move the person’s teeth into the next position. For this to happen, the person will wear the appliance for most of the day, at least around twenty hours.

At that point, the patient will shift to the next appliance, which will then make the next adjustment, and so on. The dentist will be observing all this, making sure that the teeth are moving where they are supposed to, and that the Invisalign appliances are working as expected. The patient can take the appliance out when it’s time to brush the teeth, floss and have meals. But the appliance should be in place all other times. The usual expectation is that the entire process will take a little more than a year.

The main benefit of Invisalign is that, even if the person is wearing the appliance, you can hardly see it. It really does come close to being invisible. Another advantage is that it doesn’t make it more difficult to keep your mouth clean. This is very different from traditional braces, which make it hard to brush and floss, and which offer a lot of places for food particles and pieces to get stuck and accumulate in. The main disadvantage of this product, however, is cost. So be sure to check if Invisalign will work with your available budget. In addition, not all tooth alignment problems can be solved with Invisalign. It may not be suitable for more serious misalignment issues.